Have you heard of the first technical standard for Cloud Computing—SOCCI (pronounced “saw-key”)? Wondering what it stands for? Well, it stands for Service Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure, or SOCCI.

Whether you are just beginning to deploy solutions in the cloud or if you already have existing cloud solutions deployed, SOCCI can be applied in terms of each organization’s different situation. Where ever you are on the spectrum of cloud adoption, the standard offers a well-defined set of architecture building blocks with specific roles outlined in detail. Thus, the standard can be used in multiple ways including:

Defining the service oriented aspects of your infrastructure in the cloud as part of your reference architecture

Validating your reference architecture to ensure that these building blocks have been appropriately addressed

The standard provides you an opportunity to systematically perform the following in the context of your environment:

Identify synergies between service orientation and the cloud

Extend adoption of traditional and service-oriented infrastructure in the cloud

Realize business solutions referencing the business scenario analyzed in this standard

Are you going to be SOCCI’s first application? Are you among the cloud innovators—opting not to wait when the benefits can be had today?

Incidentally, I will be presenting this standard for the second time at the HP Discover Conference in Frankfurt on 5th Dec 2012. I plan on discussing this standard, as well as its application in a hypothetical business scenario so that we can collectively brainstorm on how it could apply in different business environments.

In an earlier tweet chat on cloud standards, I tweeted: “Waiting for standards is like waiting for Godot.” After the #DT2898 session at HP Discover 2012, I expect to tweet, “Waiting for standards may be like waiting for Godot, but waiting for the application of a standard does not have to be so.”

HP Distinguished Technologist and Cloud Advisor, E.G.Nadhan has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry across the complete spectrum of selling, delivering and managing enterprise level solutions for HP customers. He is the founding co-chair for The Open Group SOCCI project and is also the founding co-chair for the Open Group Cloud Computing Governance project. Connect with Nadhan on: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Journey Blog.